Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - First part - IV. Education and Mental Culture - 1. Popular Education - Education of abnormals, and of neglected children - Schools for Idiots, by late Baroness Thorborg Rappe - Working Schools for Disabled People, by Mrs. Alice Bonthron, Gothenburg
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SCHOOLS FOR ABNORMALS.
311
For providing an efficient staff of teachers for idiots, a Seminary has been
organized in Stockholm since 1878 at the School for Feeble-minded Children,
■with accommodation at the present time for 8 pupils, who undergo a two years’
theoretical and practical course of training. The seminary is supported by the
State at an annual cost of 12,000 kronor.
The total number of idiots in Sweden, according to the census of 1890,
amounted to 7,619, or 159 per each 100,000 of the population. Probably this
figure is a trifle too high though. For times gone by, the reports show a much
smaller proportion, but they may undervalue real conditions. — The number of
idiots in the school-age is about 2,000.
Working Schools for Disabled People. The idea of establishing schools
for disabled people arose in Sweden in 1884, as a result of the visit of a Swedish
physician, Doctor Carlander of Gothenburg, to the Congress of Physicians at
Copenhagen, in the aforesaid year. The Danish Association to the care of disabled
and maimed people had then not only arranged an exhibition of the work of the
pupils, but also gave the members of the Congress an opportunity to see the
disabled people working. This school was the only one of its kind in the world,
and was connected with a gratuitous clinique for disabled people.
In Gothenburg, there was organized, as early as March 3, 1885, an
»Association for Assistance to Disabled People» with much the same plan and laws
as its Danish prototype. Means were collected, and the school was opened on
October 5, the same year. The number of pupils has, from the beginning of
the school till the end of the year 1902, amounted to 195. Of these, 23 were
entirely in want of one arm, 27 paralyzed in one arm in consequence of disease.
The others had different bodily defects, which made it difficult for them to be
engaged in any trade. The school makes a point of giving the disabled people
a professional education. Instruction is given in joinery, turning, shoe-making,
basket-making, brush-making, and wood-carving for the male pupils, linen-sewing
and art needlework, lettering, weaving and stockinet-knitting for the female
pupils. As soon as the work is salable, the pupil has hitherto received full wages;
the school has only taken pay for the material and run the risk of the work
not being sold. Destitute pupils are given free dinner at the school. Free baths
are given and an opportunity is afforded to the most sickly to spend six weeks
in the country in summer. The County council of Göteborg och Bohus Län
since 1885, and the County councils of Elfsborg Län since 1895, have granted
a limited number of disabled people from their respective districts 2/a of the
cost for their instruction and care, providing that the community or some private
person would pay the other V». After the instruction has been completed,
the school procures, if possible, situations for the male pupils, and also the
female pupils are helped to independent work. All are supplied with necessary
tools (the seamstresses are given a sewing-machine). In 1890, an orthopedic
cliniqne was established (with reception twice a week), where medical assistance
and necessary bandages could be had gratis. — The capital of the school amounts
at present to 223,422 kronor.
In Karlskrona, on the initiative of a’ private person, a little school for
disabled people was opened in 1886. In 1887, the Association for Assistance
to Disabled People in Skåne was organized, and a working-school was opened
in Helsingborg. In 1890, a Home, intended to hold 40 pupils, was built, but
this number has never as yet beeu received, owing to the lack of sufficient means.
In 1891, the »Society in Aid of the Deformed and Infirm» was established in
Stockhölm. In 1892, its working-school was opened; now also a »home» for
part of the pupils is connected with the same. The pupils who need orthopedic
treatment receive it at. the general orthopedic clinique of Stockholm.
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